


The Great Hunt

by weakinteraction



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, TorT: Monster Mash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 04:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8431894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: Chewbacca hunts alone in the Shadowlands.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [motetus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/motetus/gifts).



> I've put this in AMT as it incorporates things from KotOR into the "present day" era and I didn't want to overtag. This could be taken as happening post-TFA or as a result of similar events in an OT AU, depending on preference.

Chewbacca was woken by the chittering of the kinrath. He wrestled away the leg of the nearest creature and rose to his feet with a bellowed roar, grabbing his bowcaster as he did so. He fired, once, twice, three times, and the vermin slumped to the floor.

He had killed dozens of kinrath, but they were not worthy prey for this Death Day hunt.

His tribe had begged him not to go, but they could not understand. To them, only a fellow Wookiee deserved the honour of a hunt in their name, and even then it was in these times a mere ritual: the warriors of the tribe descending into the Shadowlands and killing the first beast they encountered before returning to the Death Day victory feast.

Death Day had been three days ago. It was many years indeed since Chewbacca had been on Kashyyyk at the time of the festivities. And this time too, he had missed the feast, and the remembrances the day after, as he continued his solo hunt.

When he slept -- only for a few hours at a time at most; he refused to use sonics to repel the forest creatures -- his dreams were haunted by the one he had failed to save. Sometimes, he imagined he saw his old friend, leading him onwards, into the deep parts where only the exiled ever went, expected never to return. But it could only be a trick of the half-light that filtered through the kilometres-high trees.

He moved on through the forest, climbing through the lower branches and scrambling among the rocks.

Finally, he heard a deeper roar than the noises of the kinrath or shyrack, one he had never heard before but somehow knew instinctively from the stories of his youth to be that of a Great Beast.

The rumours his tribe had told him were true, then. It was no surprise; the Beasts were supposed to become more active when the power of the Dark Side waxed in the galaxy, and what other conclusion could Chewbacca draw from all that had happened?

He lay along a wroshyr branch, using his scope to try to pick out the creature. Found it, aimed directly at its heart.

No. This was not the way. He should not, could not, defeat the monster like this.

He climbed back down and padded slowly through the undergrowth to where he had seen the Beast. As he went, he recalibrated his bowcaster to minimum dispersion and overcharge. He had about three minutes before the weapon exploded in his hands.

The Beast might have the power of the Dark Side flowing through its veins, but Chewbacca had a good blaster at his side.

As he approached the monster, it scented him and turned. It beat its enormous claws against the ground and charged at him.

Chewbacca raised his bowcaster and squeezed the trigger.

His aim was true.


End file.
